Tag: fish

How to make fish mayonnaise – Italian Cuisine

Do you know that you can make mayonnaise without eggs? Yes, with fish. Here is a trick by real chefs

Those who follow the most famous cooking programs will have already heard about fish mayonnaise, a sauce very similar to the original one, but without eggs.
It does not even contain any kind of milk, including vegetable milk, like the vegan mayonnaise made with soy milk, and it is not made with yogurt.

It is a reduction, "very reduced" and very creamy of a cartoon of fish.
Obviously it is very good with dishes based on fish and shellfish and can also be a good way to recycle waste.
Yes, because the fish stock is prepared just with the heads and the bones and then instead of throwing them the next time try this recipe and you will feel great chef.

How to prepare fish mayonnaise

As we said, the base is a very concentrated fish stock and filter it several times with a linen gauze or a narrow mesh strainer.
In order to prepare the fish stock, sauté 500g of fish scraps (bones, heads and scraps) together with extra virgin olive oil, chopped onion or leek.
Add some white wine and let it evaporate.
Then add a liter of water and let simmer for an hour with the lid.
Filter the cartoon by removing the fish and continue the reduction for about 40 minutes over low heat.
Once cold, take 150 ml of broth and mix with an immersion blender with 150 ml of soy oil added a little at a time. Complete with lemon juice and if you want with a pinch of salt and tabasco.

Try this mayonnaise the next time you organize a dinner with friends based on fish and make a great impression … without too much effort!

With what to combine fish mayonnaise?

Obviously the fish mayonnaise is perfect with fry or a mixed grill, but many chefs use fish mayonnaise also to season first courses with seafood… To try!

10 variations on mayonnaise and 5 recipes with aromatic mayonnaise

Browse the gallery

Sea in winter: the best fish is eaten now – Italian Cuisine

Winter is the best time to enjoy sea fish. Far from biological stops and cold waters, it is with the cold that reaches the best shape. As the experts explain, they advise not to neglect anything, from molluscs to "poor" fish

"The winter sea. It is a concept that thought does not consider. It is not very modern. It's something that nobody ever wants. " We do not doubt the abstract concept of Enrico Ruggeri – author of a memorable song – but we are in total disagreement regarding the raw fish. Even if the mixed grill and the monumental frying evoke the summer tables or the matched oysters-Champagne (wrong, however, to focus on a Chablis or a very Italian Lugana) remembers the Ferragostan dinner in the moonlight. Because beyond the biological stops – which vary from region to region – it is in the coldest months of the year that fish, crustaceans and molluscs reach the top of the form. Above all in our seas and therefore it is the advisable period to taste many species, with the certainty that they are not imported or of inferior quality. It comes from this and not from other reasons, the advice to eat i seafood and oysters first in the months with the 'r', then from September to February. Even if climate change risks limiting the period to the strictly winter one.

The best, and not touristic, Adriatic

Important detail: the greater availability calls for consumption not only of the immortal fish élite (crustaceans, oysters, branzinor …) but of what is defined "Poor fish". Fresh and treated as it should be pure enjoyment. The Bartolini family – a reference for those who love Adriatic fish and not only – for example, is working very well on the theme and offers in its Osterie (in Bologna, Cesenatico and Milano Marittima) a series of exemplary dishes on the theme that do not jar near their mythical Great Fried: The Sea in a sandwich with the fifth quarter of amberjack; Piadina with smoked mackerel; Lumachini with potato cream; Poor Clams in Casentino bean soup; Tagliatelle with cuttlefish. «Since we have a very fresh product, thanks to the fishermen friends who work exclusively for us, it becomes easy to serve unimaginable proposals in the summer – explains Andrea Bartolini, patron together with his father Stefano – and for us there is also the pride of showing how much our Adriatic offers, especially far from the tourist season

The best of Sicily

Naturally, it takes the sensibility of the patron and chef to choose the catch and interpret it to the fullest. Ciccio Sultano, bistellato with the Cathedral in Ragusa, is one of these and starts from a principle. «80% of my menu needs fish, in all species, and therefore it is suitable according to what the Sicilian sea offers in every season – he explains – I always say that the best month for fish is when you find it fresh. It seems obvious but you have to study more and educate customers not to ask for 'out of season' dishes. In the winter, Sultan prefers the sword, the amberjack, the sorrel, the alalunga, the calamari and the totanetti. And he has a weakness for the dolphinfish, fish not very well known but of great versatility, which approaches the coasts of the island and the Tyrrhenian in general at the end of autumn to lay their eggs. "We must not lose this season: it has a white, refined meat. The raw servant on spaghetti and in an antipasto with orange salad and pistachio sauce. But it is also good breaded or scalded with a sauce of black olives he says.

Scallops, mussels and oysters

Always a total supporter of seasonality is Enrico Buonocore, owner of the Langosteria Group, that to the three rooms in Milan – where the 'pantry' must still ensure the classics of the menu – flanks two temporary restaurants in Courmayeur and Paraggi. Each with a justly different vision, linked precisely to the periods. "We continue to underestimate the importance of one correct storage temperature for fish, to guarantee first of the health and then of the quality – says Buonocore – in this sense, I adore the cold months because they make the thing less complicated even in the passage from the boat to the restaurant. But what counts is the respect of the customer: in Paraggi, since we are practically on a beach and in the hot months, we avoid serving certain products while in Courmayeur we are in a natural refrigerator ideal for our counter of only raw . More and more oriented towards a limited number of suppliers and the direct management of fish, the owner of Langosteria shows us the three 'must' for the season. "The mussels are exceptional: fresh and beautiful full. Then the scallops: if they are of quality, they forget those 'rubbery' that often end up on the table. Finally, the oysters: in this period we realize that the rule of the 'r' has not flown in the air and even if the French have made canalization systems to keep the temperature where they are always low, the winter ones remain of another planet

Ragout? Not just meat! Here's how to do it with vegetables, fish or seitan – Italian Cuisine

The sauce is an indispensable condiment for pasta, but it can also be done without meat, to vary or for those who follow a diet veg

As the ragout season pasta, no one ever! We must admit it, if there is an emblematic dish of Italian cuisine it is him, the king of sauces, rich, greedy, to be collected with bread after finishing the pasta. But the meat does not like everyone or maybe sometimes you want to vary. So the sauce can also be prepared with the fish, with the vegetables, even with the seitan. Let's find out how.

The vegetable ragout

Every season has its own vegetables: in winter the Vegetable Ragu it is prepared with broccoli, radicchio, cauliflower, carrots, fennel, in summer with zucchini, peppers, aubergines. What are the vegetables you have in the fridge, cut into small pieces and put them to fry with extra virgin olive oil and a clove of garlic. Leave the vegetables crunchy, they should not be overly stewed or lose flavor. If you like, you can add tomato sauce, or even a spoonful of concentrate. Season with salt, pepper and basil. The smell of the vegetable garden on the plate … irresistible!

The fish sauce

With fish sauce means any sauce, white or red, which is prepared with fish cut into small pieces. It can be the grouper, for example, or the octopus, or the swordfish. But also the sea bream (maybe the grilled and advanced lunch), the tuna, i shrimp. Cut the fine fish and brown it with extra virgin olive oil and fresh garlic. The preparation is really fast. Add the white wine, then add, if you want a red ragù, of the past – not exaggerated in quantity or the tomato will hide the aromas of the fish – or the cherry tomatoes. Then add fennel, or parsley. With some ingredients, such as swordfish or tuna, olives and capers are also perfectly combined Sicilian.

The seitan ragù

For a 100% vegetarian sauce, but also vegan, you can replace the seitan to the meat. The procedure is exactly the same as a traditional ragout. Chop the seitan or cut it very thin and fry it in extra virgin olive oil with carrot, celery and diced onion. Add the wine and then add the tomato sauce. Add salt and pepper, add a sprinkling of nutmeg if you appreciate it. Cook for an hour on low heat.

The lentil ragout

For winter evenings, the perfect substitute for animal proteins is lentil. Also in this case it is cooked in the same way as the traditional ragout, choosing, if you have little time, the lentils red hulled, which are cooked quickly, otherwise the normal ones, to be kept in water one night before preparing the sauce.

The pasta is suitable for meat sauce

The juicy ragù go well with the homemade pasta, like maltagliati, tagliatelle or pappardelle. Those more dry instead with the short pasta: tortiglioni, penne, conchiglie.